Workers need to show rationality

THERE have been three incidents of reckless and violent actions by trade union members and workers in Nelson Mandela Bay this week that do nothing to endear the public to the workers’ cause.

The latest incident of worker irrationality and violence was the most heinous.

There is nothing that can excuse the murder of building contractor Soonthra Chetty, who was stabbed during a confrontation with disgruntled former workers.

Even if the contractor was in the wrong, there is no labour dispute that should be allowed to escalate to the level of taking away the life of another human.

There are several mechanisms for workers to address their grievances, such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, legal aid or trade unions.

Equally irrational, but fortunately not yet as violent, is the call by striking members of the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) for the removal of Algoa Bus Company chief executive Sicelo Duze.

Satawu regional secretary Honest Sinama threatened to strike until Duze was removed because he had been “at the helm for too long”.

Duze, engineering director Andre Brink and financial director Douglas Govender bought the state-subsidised bus company in 2011.

Again, whatever legitimate grievances the bus drivers might have are overshadowed by this ludicrous demand.

The third incident of labour intransigence involved members of the municipal workers’ union Samwu, who forcefully removed metro electricity boss Silby Mathew from his office and doused him with transformer oil.

This was, according to them, because he unilaterally made decisions without consulting workers and they did not like his management style.

Other employees have written letters to The Herald claiming that Mathew was removed because he is a corruption-buster. If this is true, then workers are being misguided by opportunists.

Good common sense, mutual respect and rationality need to prevail before more lives are lost and more job-creating companies and government services are ruined by militant folly.